Furniture for institutional settings must meet certain requirements. The furniture must be particularly durable, yet aesthetically pleasing and be constructed of a minimum number of uncomplicated parts which are economical to manufacture and assemble. Moreover, the furniture should be difficult to disassemble so that the furniture or parts thereof cannot be easily vandalized or stolen, used in performing pranks, used as a weapon or utilized in taking unauthorized leave of an institutional setting.
One particular furniture article usually found in institutional settings comprises a desk. An increasingly common requirement for desks is that they be particularly adapted for supporting electronic devices such as digital computers and related equipment and that certain security for such equipment be provided. Other desirable features in durable furniture articles have been sought with respect to the construction of cabinets, carrels, chests of drawers, wardrobe units and similar structures wherein simplified construction of the article is desired while providing an aesthetically pleasing structure. Bed structures, in institutional settings, when stacked one on top of the other in so-called "bunk bed" fashion, must be properly secured to each other and be constructed in such a way as to provide for easy stacking and unstacking of the beds without requiring complicated assembly and disassembly.
The present invention has been directed to providing durable furniture articles which overcome the deficiencies of prior art furniture while providing the desired features mentioned above.